The King

We arrive at the castle, guards are lined up outside the entrance, and they stare at all of us as we pass by them on our horses. Once we reach the gate to the courtyard two of the guards ask Rin questions like why he's here and what division he's in. Once he answers the questions one of the guards ask for the letter that he received from the king, Rin hands the letter to the guard a few moments later the guard gives back the letter and gives the signal to open the gate.

Rin looks back at everyone before giving us the okay to follow him. I look around and see more guards along with other people. Florists are tending to the garden, watering the flowers, planting new ones, and trimming the hedges.

As we follow the path to the entrance of the castle a tall man is standing in front of it, he's wearing a clean suit and bows swiftly. "Captain Rin, I presume? Squad or escorts?" The man speaks with formality as he examines everyone.

"These are my squadmates, the escorts are back at the hideout."

"Very well then, the stables masters will take the horses to the stables. If you could all please follow me to see his majesty." Rin gets off his horse, the rest of us do the same. We follow the man into the castle, he points out where everything is.

"Hey, Skye." Rin appears next to me scaring me; I thought he was with the man. "I'm gonna have to ask you to wait out here."

"Why?"

"The king has very powerful magic, once he sees you he's going to try and find out why you don't have any. When he touches someone he's able to see what type of magic they have."

"I want to know why I don't have any magic though, I mean I know why, but I want to know why. Never mind you don't understand, I'm sorry but I'm not going to wait out here."

"We're here." The man stops and stands in front of a large white double door.

"I'm your captain and you'll do as I say."

Rin starts walking away, but I grab his face and look him in the eyes with anger. "You're my captain, but you're also a friend. Someone I've known since we were little. So, I'm telling you not as your teammate but as your friend I'm not waiting out here."

The door opens, and the man leads the way to the throne room. I follow him and everyone else as Rin stands there alone. We all line up in front of the throne, the isn't here. Shortly after Rin comes in and stands in front of us.

"His majesty will arrive momentarily." The man stands next to the throne, and the door opens, I can hear footsteps approach and then there's a man walking past us. He's dressed in fine clothes from head to toe. His robes are black and gold and drag on the floor, he stands in front of the chair examining us. His shirt and pants are black and white wrinkle-free, and his crown is gold with a purple jewel in the middle. He sits down crossing his leg over the other. "Captain Rin, I trust this is your squad, correct?

"Yes, your majesty."

"How have you been? How's your squad? Have you gotten any recruits?"

"We've all been good, there are two recruits. Marx joined not too long ago. Marx step forward." He does and the king gets up and approaches him, he holds out his hands and Marx takes them.

After about a minute or so the king smiles. "Are you royal or noble blood?"

"I'm a noble…your majesty"

"You have very strong magic, time magic. The ability to stop or speed those around you, not many people have that type of magic. The only downside to it is that you have to touch the person or object, correct?"

"Yes, it helps me to heal. I can reverse most injuries depending on how bad they are."

"Fascinating, Rin who's the other recruit?"

He's silent for a moment. "Skye, she joined just before we left for the volcano. Skye step forward, Marx you may step back." I do as I'm told, the king holds out his hand, and just as I'm about to take them Rin steps in front of me. "I apologize, your majesty, she's sick and we'd hate for you to get sick as well." The king moves his hands away, his green eyes pierce through mine.

"Very well then. Let's get down to business." The king goes back to sit on his throne, crossing his legs. "You're group was the first to come back, because you encountered a group of people. Who were they and what did they want?"

"Trinity and Skye were the only ones awake, the rest of us were affected by the smoke. Trinity and Skye step forward please."

We step at the same time, and Trinity takes the lead. "Were not sure who they were, we were ambushed they used the smoke to try and put us to sleep, I used my magic to slow the effects of it, and Skye has a greater immunity to it than the rest of us. Luckily I had reached her in time, the smoke was starting to take over, by the time I got to her she almost passed out. They wanted the artifact from the volcano, that's where they were headed. There wasn't a lot of them, so we were able to take care of them."

The king looks at me, waiting for a response. "Yeah, we then tended to everyone else since the smoke had cleared up. We all got beat up a bit, but the artifact is safe." The king nods and Trinity and I step back. Rin dismisses all of us so he can talk to the king in private, the man in the nice uniform escorts us to a dining hall. There's a long table with chairs lined up all around it with different types of food.

"You may wait and eat here until Captain Rin and his majesty are finished." We all nod and say thank you before going to the table. I sit next to Trinity who already has a plate full of food.

"Trinity?"

She looks at me with food stuffed in her mouth, her cheeks puffed up like chipmunks, she then swallows it all and gives me a shy smile. "What's, up Skye?"

"We went to the volcano to protect an artifact, but I didn't see anything."

"It's kind of hard to explain." I stare at her waiting for her to explain, she sighs and shakes her head. "The artifact is the spirit of the volcano…well-"

"Seriously? So, that whole time I was talking to like a part of my grandfather?"

"No, it's like part of the spirit? The spirit guards it, but it's also part of it, do you understand?"

"So, they're fused?"

"Kind of, you'll find out eventually."

Rin enters the room and we all stand up. "We don't have any missions until after the event next week."

"We have a whole week off?"

"As of now yes, however since half of the divisions will be on guard at the artifact sites there could be some missions and jobs that arise." We all start talking among ourselves excited for the week off. "We're able to leave the castle; you may either go back to the hideout or visit family. If something comes in for a mission or job I'll send an owl to whomever I think will be best for the job. You're all dismissed, except for Skye you need to stay."

I nod and watch everyone else leave. I hope I'm not in trouble for what happened earlier. "Rin, listen before you say anything I just want you to know I'm sorry."

"I'm not mad at you, I was just curious to see what you'll be doing over the next week."

"I'll probably be going back to the village to visit my aunt and the boys, what about you?"

"I'll be going home, I want to make sure everything's okay after the attack."

With everything that's happened lately, I completely forgot about what happened. "I'll go with you; the village is on my way home so it'll be fine. I wanna make sure everyone's okay too."

He nods and we leave the castle and go to the stables. "First we need to go to the hideout so I can get my escorts, and then well leave." I nod as the stable masters arrive with our horses we thank them before leaving the castle grounds and going to the hideout.